I decided to go through this "songs" section of the Tow and, by album, start threads on all the songs that don't have their own threads/discussions yet. The first was "Freeze Tag" on her first album. "Those Whole Girls" is the 2nd such song I've found.

It doesn't seem to be a big favorite SV song among her fans, hardly ever getting a mention. But I think it's a very interesting and different song. On this most experimental (I believe) of her albums, this is one of the most experimental songs, with the interesting "quick, brief stroke" way (to use a painting metaphor) of writing and singing lyrics that paint a picture. I don't know if it's successful or not, but it was worth a try.

It also seems to point to a, perhaps, admiration of other females, maybe even an envy of female athleticism? (Although that would be only a limited view, I realize, that was just a quick and inarticulate way, for sake of conversational ease, of my laying out one possible jumping point for discussion.) Also, let's perhaps put this in a category with "Stockings" as something that may point to a shred of evidence of 'lesbianism' (in the broader sense, not necessarily overtly sexual) in SV's work. Any other thoughts?

Discuss -

-M

the body is the place where everything is ultimately expressed. and you can "run in grace" if you're "whole". this is what i hear suzanne saying in this song, in her beautiful staccato delivery of each word and note.

i'm sure an excerpt of what suzanne said to me in the interview for "urgent whispers" will speak much better than my words:

[suzanne][...] "I've always struggled to be healthy, but especially on the 1987 "Solitude Standing" world tour I just took on too much. When I came back I had to sort of, carefully and slowly, make my way towards being healthy, because I had forgotten about it and for years I would disregard pain. So I started to keep track of what my body was doing and what it was feeling, after years of trying not to feel what my body was feeling. That's how you begin to feel things again. I think that's when I became interested in the vocabulary of medicine and of the body. And also to me it's fascinating. There's something beautiful about the language and the intention of medicine, which is to make you whole and to me there's something spiritual in it also. Being a woman and a songwriter I would prefer to approach that ideal of being whole and being healthy, through the body rather than through love and romance, which a lot of women do, when they write about their romantic life.

[me] "Men In A War" and "Those Whole Girls (Run In Grace)" are songs which talk about that ideal, although they do so in a rather different way from each other.

[suzanne] "Those Whole Girls (Run In Grace)" is clearly what I was aiming for. Sometimes I would get jealous of women who seem very powerful and who seem to be able to handle themselves gracefully. When I was a dancer it was hard for me to be like that. I would always pick things that were difficult for me to do, so I had the sense of struggling through it." [...]

love,
fátima

Hi Tow, and dear Fatima ;)!

Many years ago, when i originally joined the email undertow, i remember having a great discussion about this song! i mentioned the connection i heard in this song to "Women who run with the wolves" by Clarrissa Pincola Estes, and the sounds at the beginning of the song, which to me sound like wolves yelping.

The impression i got from this song is exactly that of Suzanne's interview, kind of being a bit jealous of those women who seem so solid, so put together, "need no mercy." i also wish to be one of those women, but i doubt i'll ever get there the way they seem to be. more important seems to be to appreciate what i am, even if it is fragile, for with fragility comes other gifts that those "whole", sometimes seemingly superficial or self-repressed women miss out on.

glad to have a bit of a voice again,
Miriam k

dear miriam,

i remember both the "great discussion about this song" and the connection you mentioned then with that book. ;)

glad to hear "a bit of [your] voice again".

love,
fátima

Good news

Running in grace is not just for whole girls (and boys)

It's for everyone

 Keep trying if you struggle

 

---

The wind kicks up with the smell of rain
The kids are gone but the souls remain